1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to rotary drum crushers for cans.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Rotary drum can crushers have been known. For example the U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,100 for a Can Crushing Machine shows an outer drum and a roller within the drum. The outer drum has a drive ring around its outer periphery, and the inner drum or roller is an idler. In the quest to make the can crushers small, low cost, quiet in operation and reliable, so that the crushers can be used for individual installations in restaurants, bars, and other places where beverages are served in cans, certain improvements were deemed desirable.
Rotary flour mills are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 373,342 and 410,879. In these particular patents, there are a pair of interfitting (one inside the other) crushing rolls mounted in a particular manner to permit crushing grain into flour, and which use heavy rolls that are powered driven. In U.S. Pat. No. 410,879, a spring load is placed upon the center roll relative to the outer drum, and in boh patents material is carried between the outer drum and the inner roller for a grinding and crushing action. After grinding the material is discharged. These old flour mills include means for removing the material after it has been crushed and ground, and comprise substantial size machines that are driven by belts from remotely located motors.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,655,333 to V. S. Perazio, issued Jan. 3, 1928 shows a fruit crusher and squeezer that is hand operated and provides a drive on an outer drum that had a spring loaded inner roller that crushes the fruit as it moves against, or adjacent to, the inner surface of the outer drum.
U.S. Pat. No. 49,088, issued Aug. 1, 1865 to Crever and Keeney for a cider mill shows a unit that crushes fruit using an outer drum and an inner roller with outer roller guides for holding the outer drum for rotation, and a hand powered drive to the outer drum comprising a ring gear and pinion.
U.S. Pat. No, 2,619,150, issued Nov. 25, 1952 to Smith shows a type of can crushing mechanism that has oscillating jaws that clamp together to crush cans being introduced.
British Pat. No. 301,242, issued in November of 1928 to Torulf shows a kneading, crushing, mixing or other type machine using a pair of rotating members, including a inner roller that rotates within an outer drum or housing. The unit is hand driven, and the inner roller is an idler roller which can be resiliently mounted relative to the outer drum to permit materials to pass between the roller and the outer housing.
British Pat. No. 209,857, issued January 1924 to Seaman also shows a grinding, crushing or mixing mill that has an outer conical housing that is power driven and an inner truncated conical member with the surfaces of the two members cooperating together for working materials that pass between the conical members.
French Pat. No. 1,196,535, issued November of 1959 to Tamani shows a fruit squeezer that has two squeezing chambers, each of which has an outer cylindrical drum member having an inner roller mounted therein with the fruit being passed between the two members as the outer members are driven, for squeezing the fruit and removing juices and pulp.
The use of large machines for crushing and compacting cans is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,004, issued July 31, 1973 to Pagdin et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,128, issued Dec. 4, 1973 to Morris utilizes a conveyor to move cans from a hopper to a jaw mechanism which partially collapses the cans, and the cans then fall into a pair of counterrotating rollers that further compresses them.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,877,723, pertains to a garbage and refuse incinerator utilizing interfitting conically shaped crushing members having corrugated surface characteristics to crush incombustible waste materials deposited into the residue receiver from a combustion area.
Conical discs used for crushing cans are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,356,122 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,036,517 relates to a can crusher having a stationary crushing plate and a movable crushing plate driven by an eccentric cam to perform a crushing operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,351, discloses a crusher which utilizes a pair of rollers having a substantially square cross section with rounded edges to form the crusher elements. Special gearing and power trains are required to rotate the rollers out of phase and keep them synchronized.